A review by unfiltered_fiction
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Sorrow and Bliss is an incisive and compelling novel that attains both literary excellence and social intelligence. 

The book tells the story of Martha, an almost-forty year old woman who seems to have almost everything, and yet suffers a deep, devastating, immobilising unhappiness. As the history of her adult life unravels through flashbacks, the book gets darker and heavier as it opens up a life lived with acute and poorly supported mental illness. 

The story is told from Martha's perspective, and I have to say that this is one of the best examples of first person narration that I've read in a good while. The world is filtered through Martha's perspective in an incredibly sustained manner, playing with the "unreliable narrator" trope I an incredibly clever way. This results ultimately in immaculate character work, but can occasionally make the narrative structure seem disjointed. In addition, it embitters some of the prose, throwing unpleasant barbs at various secondary characters; as a reader, you need to be prepared to encounter Martha's cruelty and shallowness, but know that there is ultimately a reason and trust that this acerbic emotion will be dealt with. 

There were a few minor points that just held this short of being a five star read for me; mostly, I wanted to see another few months of Martha's journey. I especially wanted a continuation of the dynamic between Martha and her mother in the last 50 pages. 

This is an exhausting book, in some ways; it captures the atrophic exhaustion caused by recurring episodes of mental illness, and that can make for hard reading. Ultimately, though, persistence will be rewarded. It is a rare book which increases in value with every single chapter; with Martha's story, Meg Mason achieves this. 
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